Guidelines for Selecting Slices for File Systems

When you create file systems for a boot environment, the rules are identical
to the rules for creating file systems for the Oracle Solaris OS. Live
Upgrade cannot prevent you from creating invalid configurations for critical file systems. For
example, you could type a lucreate command that would create separate file systems for
root (/) and /kernel which is an invalid division of the root (/)
file system.

Do not overlap slices when reslicing disks. If this condition exists, the new
boot environment appears to have been created, but when activated, the boot environment
does not boot. The overlapping file systems might be corrupted.

For Live Upgrade to work properly, the vfstab file on the active boot
environment must have valid contents and must have an entry for the root
(/) file system at a minimum.

Guidelines for Selecting a Slice for the root (/) File System

When you create an inactive boot environment, you need to identify a slice
where the root (/) file system is to be copied. Use the following
guidelines when you select a slice for the root (/) file system.

Must be a slice from which the system can boot.

Must meet the recommended minimum size.

Can be on different physical disks or the same disk as the active root (/) file system.

Can be a Veritas Volume Manager volume (VxVM). If VxVM volumes are configured on your current system, the lucreate command can create a new boot environment. When the data is copied to the new boot environment, the Veritas file system configuration is lost and a UFS file system is created on the new boot environment.

Guidelines for Selecting Slices for Mirrored File Systems

You can create a new boot environment that contains any combination of physical
disk slices, Solaris Volume Manager volumes, or Veritas Volume Manager volumes. Critical file
systems that are copied to the new boot environment can be of the
following types:

A physical slice.

A single-slice concatenation that is included in a RAID-1 volume (mirror). The slice that contains the root (/) file system can be a RAID-1 volume.

A single-slice concatenation that is included in a RAID-0 volume. The slice that contains the root (/) file system can be a RAID-0 volume.

When you create a new boot environment, the lucreate-m command recognizes
the following three types of devices:

A physical slice in the form of /dev/dsk/cwtxdysz

A Solaris Volume Manager volume in the form of /dev/md/dsk/dnum

A Veritas Volume Manager volume in the form of /dev/vx/dsk/volume_name. If VxVM volumes are configured on your current system, the lucreate command can create a new boot environment. When the data is copied to the new boot environment, the Veritas file system configuration is lost and a UFS file system is created on the new boot environment.

Checking the Status of Volumes

If a mirror or submirror needs maintenance or is busy, components cannot be
detached. You should use the metastat command before creating a new boot environment
and using the detach keyword. The metastat command checks whether the mirror is
in the process of resynchronization or is in use. For information, see the
metastat(1M) man page.

Detaching Volumes and Resynchronizing Mirrors

If you use the detach keyword to detach a submirror, lucreate checks
if a device is currently resyncing. If the device is resyncing, you cannot
detach the submirror and you see an error message.

Resynchronization is the process of copying data from one submirror to another submirror
after the following problems:

Using Solaris Volume Manager Commands

Use the lucreate command rather than Solaris Volume Manager commands to manipulate volumes
on inactive boot environments. The Solaris Volume Manager software has no knowledge of boot
environments, whereas the lucreate command contains checks that prevent you from inadvertently destroying
a boot environment. For example, lucreate prevents you from overwriting or deleting a Solaris
Volume Manager volume.

However, if you have already used Solaris Volume Manager software to create complex
Solaris Volume Manager concatenations, stripes, and mirrors, you must use Solaris Volume Manager
software to manipulate them. Live Upgrade is aware of these components and supports
their use. Before using Solaris Volume Manager commands that can create, modify, or
destroy volume components, use the lustatus or lufslist commands. These commands can determine which
Solaris Volume Manager volumes contain file systems that are in use by
a Live Upgrade boot environment.

Guidelines for Selecting a Slice for a Swap Volume

These guidelines contain configuration recommendations and examples for a swap slice.

Configuring Swap for the New Boot Environment

You can configure a swap slice in three ways by using the
lucreate command with the -m option:

If you do not specify a swap slice, the swap slices belonging to the current boot environment are configured for the new boot environment.

If you specify one or more swap slices, these slices are the only swap slices that are used by the new boot environment. The two boot environments do not share any swap slices.

You can specify to both share a swap slice and add a new slice for swap.

The following examples show the three ways of configuring swap. The current boot
environment is configured with the root (/) file system on c0t0d0s0. The swap
file system is on c0t0d0s1.

In the following example, no swap slice is specified. The new boot environment contains the root (/) file system on c0t1d0s0. Swap is shared between the current and new boot environment on c0t0d0s1.

# lucreate -n be2 -m /:/dev/dsk/c0t1d0s0:ufs

In the following example, a swap slice is specified. The new boot environment contains the root (/) file system on c0t1d0s0. A new swap file system is created on c0t1d0s1. No swap slice is shared between the current and new boot environment.

In the following example, a swap slice is added and another swap slice is shared between the two boot environments. The new boot environment contains the root (/) file system on c0t1d0s0. A new swap slice is created on c0t1d0s1. The swap slice on c0t0d0s1 is shared between the current and new boot environment.

# lucreate -n be2 -m /:/dev/dsk/c0t1d0s0:ufs -m -:shared:swap \

-m -:/dev/dsk/c0t1d0s1:swap

Failed Boot Environment Creation If Swap Is in Use

A boot environment creation fails if the swap slice is being used by
any boot environment except for the current boot environment. If the boot environment
was created using the -s option, the alternate-source boot environment can use the
swap slice, but not any other boot environment.

Guidelines for Selecting Slices for Shareable File Systems

Live Upgrade copies the entire contents of a slice to the designated new
boot environment slice. You might want some large file systems on that slice
to be shared between boot environments rather than copied to conserve space and
copying time. File systems that are critical to the OS such as root
(/) and /var must be copied. File systems such as /home are not
critical file systems and could be shared between boot environments. Shareable file systems
must be user-defined file systems and on separate swap slices on both the
active and new boot environments. You can reconfigure the disk several ways, depending
your needs.

Reconfiguring a disk

Examples

For More Information

You can reslice the disk
before creating the new boot environment and put the shareable file system on
its own slice.

For example, if the root (/) file system, /var,
and /home are on the same slice, reconfigure the disk and put /home
on its own slice. When you create any new boot environments, /home is
shared with the new boot environment by default.

If you want to share a
directory, the directory must be split off to its own slice. The directory
is then a file system that can be shared with another boot environment.
You can use the lucreate command with the -m option to create a
new boot environment and split a directory off to its own slice. But,
the new file system cannot yet be shared with the original boot environment.
You need to run the lucreate command with the -m option again to
create another boot environment. The two new boot environments can then share the
directory.

For example, if you wanted to upgrade from the Solaris
9 release to the Oracle Solaris 10 8/11 release and share /home, you
could run the lucreate command with the -m option. You could create a
Solaris 9 release with /home as a separate file system on its own
slice. Then run the lucreate command with the -m option again to duplicate
that boot environment. This third boot environment can then be upgraded to the
Oracle Solaris 10 8/11 release. /home is shared between the Solaris 9
and Oracle Solaris 10 8/11 releases.